Text Pane For SmartArt Graphics in PowerPoint 2011
for Mac

Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how the Text Pane
can help you to insert and edit text in your SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint
2011 for Mac.

SmartArt is a great option that lets you quickly create editable diagrams that also work as bulleted list alternatives. You have already learned how to convert
your bulleted list to a SmartArt graphic --
but once you do that, you'll discover that it is neither easy nor intuitive to edit,
add, or delete text that comprised your original bulleted list. Fortunately,
you can get the bulleted list back within the convenient Text
Pane of the SmartArt graphic -- any edits you make in the Text Pane also show immediately in your SmartArt graphic. This tutorial will help you explore
working within the Text Pane for SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint
2011:

Showing and Hiding the Text Pane

When a Smart Art graphic is inserted on the slide, you may or may not
see the Text Pane. If you don't see the Text Pane, select the SmartArt
graphic so that you can see the Text
Pane icon, as highlighted
in red in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Text Pane icon within the SmartArt graphic

Click this
icon to make the Text Pane visible on the left side of the SmartArt graphic,
as shown below in Figure 2.

Figure 2: SmartArt graphics Text Pane

Tip: At any point of time, you can close the
Text Pane by clicking the x button on the top
left corner of the Text Pane (highlighted in red in Figure 2).

Working within the Text Pane

Within the Text Pane, start typing to add the text, as shown
in Figure
3. You can also replace existing text. Whatever you type in the Text Pane is also reflected within the SmartArt
graphic.

Figure 3: Add or edit text in the Text Pane

To create a new line of bulleted text in the Text Pane, just press the
Return / Enter key. Type text, and
you'll see that your SmartArt graphic has a new shape representing
what you added, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: New bullet in Text Pane inserts a new shape
in SmartArt graphic

If you want to format the text in the Text Pane, first select the
text to be edited. Then, carefully right-click
to view the context menu shown in Figure
5.

Figure 5: Context menu options of Text Pane

Note that the context menu includes the options to cut, copy and paste the
selected text.

Select the Font option (highlighted in red in the context menu in Figure 5 above) to make changes to font attributes. This will open the Format Text dialog box with Font tab active (see Figure 6). Here you can change the font, font color, etc. of the selected text within the Text Pane (and also within the SmartArt graphic). The Character Spacing tab enables you to adjust the spacing and placement of the same text.

Figure 6: Format Text dialog box

The Text Pane also includes six handy icons that allow you to
change the hierarchy and position of the selected text to previous
or next bullet levels (highlighted in red in Figure 7).
Do note that these icons may be grayed out in some
instances -- their availability in the Text Pane depends upon what
type of SmartArt graphic variant you are working with.

Figure 7: Icons within the Text Pane to re-position the text within SmartArt graphic

These six icons function as explained (from left to right) below:

Add: This icon with a green plus sign adds a new bullet to the hierarchy relative to
the shape that was selected before clicking the Add icon.

Delete: This icon with a red minus sign removes selected bullet from the hierarchy.

Decrease Indent: The left arrow icon takes the selected text to one level up. For example,
if Decrease Indent is applied to a Bullet Level 2 text, it will be
converted to Bullet Level 1 text.

Increase Indent: The right arrow icon increases the indent (or reduces the
hierarchy by one level) of the selected text to the lower level, applying
that level's style and formatting. For example, Bullet Level 1 text
will be changed to Bullet Level 2.

Move Up: The up arrow icon moves the selected text up so that it
appears before previous item. The text is moved
up without making any changes to its hierarchy though.

Move Down: The down arrow moves the selected text down so that it
appears after next item. Again, the text is moved
down without making any changes to its hierarchy.

As mentioned above, some of the above icons
might be grayed out depending upon the SmartArt
graphic variant being used. For example you cannot add a new bullet level, or even
a demoted level to the Basic Matrix SmartArt graphic once you hit the
limit of 4 first level bullets (see Figure
8, the first icon, Add has been grayed
out). Even if you try to add a new bullet by pressing Return key, you will see a cross mark in red as shown in Figure
8 indicating that
the new bullet cannot be added .

Figure 8: Basic Matrix doesn't allow to add 5th level
bullet

Some SmartArt graphic variants though let you add more bullets / shapes
and are not as constrained as the Basic Matrix variant -- the Diverging
Radial for instance lets you add many more bullets / shapes to an existing
SmartArt graphic (see Figure 9 ).

Figures9: Two variants of the Diverging Radial
SmartArt graphic showing the effect of adding more bullets / shapes